Traditional communication systems, such as standard and cellular telephone systems, enable verbal communications between people at different locations and dual tone multiple frequency (DTMF) communications for transmitting information to machines via tones. Communication systems for audibly-impaired (i.e., hearing-impaired, speech-impaired, or a combination thereof) individuals may also enable non-verbal communications instead of, or in addition to, verbal communications. Some communication systems for audibly-impaired people enable communications between communication devices for audibly-impaired people and communication systems for audibly-capable users (e.g., standard telephones, cellular telephones, etc.). For example, a video relay service (VRS) may provide speech to sign language translation services, and sign language to speech translation services for a communication session between a video phone for an audibly-impaired user and a traditional telephone for an audibly-capable user.
Some communication systems for audibly-impaired people enable communications between communication devices for audibly-impaired people (e.g., video endpoint to video endpoint communications). These communication systems may operate with or without intervention from a video relay service, depending on the audible impairments/capabilities and non-audible capabilities (e.g., ability to understand and/or sign in a sign language) of the parties operating the communication devices for audibly-impaired people.
Conventionally, the audibly-impaired user communicates with a call assistant (e.g., communicating via sign language), and then the call assistant conveys the messages to the far-end user. The call assistant may act as a translator for both the audibly-impaired user (e.g., communicating via sign language) and the far-end user (communicating via speech communication). If the far-end user is not a live person (e.g., an automated phone menu system), the call assistant may interpret the automated menu options to the audibly-impaired user via sign language. The audibly-impaired user may respond by using sign language to instruct the call assistant which selection to choose. The call assistant then makes the appropriate selection. For example, the call assistant may speak the message from the audibly-impaired user if the automated phone menu system is configured to recognize and interpret voice. Alternatively, the far-end user (e.g., automated phone menu system) may be configured to recognize DTMF signals. Therefore, the call assistant may use a numeric keypad configured to send such DTMF signals to the automated phone system. The inventors have appreciated that, at times, the audibly-impaired person may desire to convey information through the communication device to the far-end user through methods other than by sign language communication, which functionality is not offered by conventional VRS systems.